Without any doubt, one of the most surprising things that I came up when I first arrived to Sweden was this tradition of “Taco Friday”, were a lot of people try to eat tacos on Friday, yes what a guess!  It was surprising in two ways, on one side I did not expect to find tacos in this country, but it on the other side it was also surprising in a bad way, because they are far far far from what real tacos or Mexican food are, in general the Mexican food and tacos you find in this country are like the U.S. version of our food which we call tex-mex, which is more like a bad joke of a food that has its origins dating back to the Aztec Empire and our indigenous people and that it is also an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity declared by the UNESCO.

I will tell you how to cook “tacos al pastor” and a hot sauce for your tacos, just have in mind that it might be difficult to find all the ingredients in convenient stores, in case you want real Mexican ingredients or just real Mexican Tacos visit “La Neta” in Stockholm, the only Mexican Food that I authorize as a Mexican in Sweden.

Original tacos al pastor are made with pork, but you can of course use any meat, just have in mind this few ingredients that are a must in any taco: fresh corn tortillas (you can use flour ones too), freshly chopped cilantro, grilled onions, lime and hot sauce.

The most important thing in any tacos is the marinade, “Tacos al Pastor” have a distinct color and flavor, here are the ingredients and steps to make them as real as if you were in Mexico.

For the meat:

  1. Cut your favorite meat in thin slices.


For the marinade:

  1. You need to get 7 Guahillo Chile, de-seeded and cleaned then leaved them inside a bowl of water for 30 minutes.
  2. Try to get 4 Ancho Chile, de-seeded and cleaned.
  3. 3 Cloves of garlic.
  4. 1/2 Onion.
  5. 1/2 cup of orange.
  6. 1 tablespoon of oregano.
  7. 2 tablespoon of paper.
  8. 4 tablespoon of vinegar.
  9. 1 table spoon of salt.
  10. 1/4 cup of water.

Then blend all the ingredients in a blender machine, until you have a very thick red paste  that we call “adobo”.

Preparation:

  1. Get your meat slices and put salt on them , after that you gonna cover all your meat with this “adobo”, use your hands thats the easiest way, just remember to wash them before you do it, use al the “adobo”, and then leave the meat for two hours inside your fridge.
  2. Heat your pan, and put some oil on it (use your favorite one), you gonna fry the meat covered with adobo on both sides, but the trick is to do it just for a couple of minutes each side and one slice at a time, be careful with the hot oil.
  3. Once you have all your meat fried, you gonna chop them again in even thiner slices and you gonna put them again in your pan with some very thin chopped onions with it.
  4. Cook it for a couple of more minutes, and it will be ready.


For the sauce:

  1. Get your hot pan with some oil.
  2. Put 1/4 Onion on it.
  3. 2 Cloves of Garlic.
  4. 3 chopped tomatoes.
  5. 2-4 chipotles (depending on how spicy you want it).

Preparation:

  1. Fried everything for a couple of minutes, and then you will add a cup of water, salt and pepper, after 5 minutes, you will take them out, and blend all the ingredients in your blending machine.
  2. Then you need to take out this sauce and put it again in your hot pan for another 5 minutes.
  3. Thats it, you have your sauce!

 

Put the meat on your tortillas, if you can not get corn tortillas, try any flour tortilla you can find, remember to heat it for a couple of minutes in your pan before you put the meat, but remember no hard-shells allowed, the tortilla need to be soft, once you have it, put the meat on it, cover it with your hot sauce, and put some lime on it! If you are feeling adventurous you can prepare a “Guacamole” but that is for another day…

Enjoy!

Pd: No cream allowed and once again, no hard shell tortillas!

/Adolfo